{"id":890448,"date":"2026-10-22T06:26:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T06:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/890448\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T06:26:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T06:26:13","slug":"netflix-co-ceos-in-town-hall-address-executive-shakeup-layoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/890448\/","title":{"rendered":"Netflix Co-CEOs In Town Hall Address Executive Shakeup & Layoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tA day after Netflix<\/a> co-CEOs Ted Sarandos<\/a> and Greg Peters<\/a> faced anxious investors on the company\u2019s Q3 earnings<\/a> call after reporting mixed financial results, the duo on Wednesday faced anxious staffers at a town hall meeting after laying off 1,000<\/a> and shaking up the executive ranks by replacing Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria with Peter Rice<\/a> and also ousting head of film Dan Lin.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe one-two punch of the layoffs on Wednesday, followed by the Bajaria exit<\/a> on Thursday, which Netflix employees found out about from the press before the news could be communicated internally, was reportedly brought up at the town hall meeting, with Peters indicating job cuts were over for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n

\n\tLike on the earnings call the day before, Sarandos touted incoming CCO Rice<\/a>, who we hear was not at today\u2019s town hall as he officially starts next week.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn his absence, Sarandos spoke enthusiastically about Rice\u2019s background, echoing his comments on the earning call. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHe\u2019s one of the really rare people in the industry who\u2019s led TV networks, movie studios, streaming services. His creative instinct and his business acumen are remarkable. He\u2019s really an at-scale quality and volume operator, and he does it across every imaginable form of entertainment, network, prestige cable, streaming, theatrical and TV films and live sports,\u201d Sarandos said Tuesday, making a point to stress twice that Rice\u2019s background extends beyond film and TV \u2014 areas he is mostly known for through his stints as President of Fox Searchlight Pictures during the era of Slumdog Millionaire and Little Miss Sunshine, CEO of Fox Networks Group and Chairman of Walt Disney Television.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat general perception led to some comments following Rice\u2019s appointment last week about him coming from traditional media to the largest streamer without streaming experience.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile it is not vast, Rice does have some streaming background. His experience is more extensive than Bajaria\u2019s when she originally joined Netflix, Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht\u2019s when they took over Apple TV, and Jennifer Salke\u2019s when she took the reins of Amazon MGM Studios.<\/p>\n

\n\tRice spent time on the Hulu board. And, for almost three years, from 2019 when his top lieutenant at the time (and eventual successor) Dana Walden took oversight of Hulu Originals until his 2022 ouster, he also signed off on greenlight decisions for a string of buzzy Hulu series such as Only Murders in the Building, Dopesick, The Dropout and The Great. In that role, he also worked with FX topper John Landgraf on transitioning the cable brand to streaming with viral series like The Bear and backed risky big-budget bets that became streaming hits in FX\u2019s Sh\u014dgun and Disney+\u2019s Percy Jackson, while also using his Searchlight connections to get the Summer of Soul documentary on Hulu ahead of its awards run, capped by an Oscar win.<\/p>\n

\n\tEven if Rice didn\u2019t have any streaming experience, his hire has still been cheered by producers and talent reps<\/a> due to his creative credentials and Hollywood relationships. The latter has become a top talking point for Sarandos when explaining the reason for the executive change.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMost importantly, Peter Rice understands talent relations,\u201d he said on the earnings call Tuesday and reiterated again at the town hall. Similar to the reaction of those watching the earnings webcast, people attending the town hall perceived the comments as praise for Rice but also a slight to Bajaria and her talent relations, though she was thanked for her 10 years at Netflix both on the call<\/a> at and the town hall, I hear.<\/p>\n

\n\tAttendees of the town hall also got the impression that concerns over the prospects of Netflix\u2019s current pipeline producing a massive hit may have contributed to the regime change, with Sarandos suggesting on the call that he expects Rice to put his stamp and \u201chave an impact on those projects that are in the works even in the short term.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI know that we could do better, especially in the U.S.,\u201d Sarandos said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\n\tAt both forums, he spoke about Netflix\u2019s \u201cbusiness flywheel\u201d fundamentally working but in need of better execution, including refocusing on making shows that can work globally. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe reset comes amid a major stock slide<\/a> and flashing red light on Wall Street as engagement growth has slowed amid \u201creally solid doubles and triples\u201d but no home runs this year, as Sarandos acknowledged Tuesday. <\/p>\n

\n\tAnd the reset may include going back to basics.<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring the town hall, Sarandos reportedly spoke about getting back to prioritizing \u201cmember joy,\u201d which had been a key part of Netflix\u2019s corporate philosophy and so important to co-founder Reed Hastings that he listed it as one of his biggest contributions to the company when he left earlier this year.<\/p>\n

\n\tEchoing that at the town hall, Sarandos stressed the importance of members and their experience as something that should inform everything they do at Netflix, I hear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A day after Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters faced anxious investors on the company\u2019s Q3 earnings…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":890449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[88,133156,217,371144,77953],"class_list":["post-890448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-greg-peters","tag-netflix","tag-peter-rice","tag-ted-sarandos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=890448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/890449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=890448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=890448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=890448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}